Episode 7 – Laura Bradbury – Joshua Tree National Park

The date is October 18, 1984, three-and-a-half-year-old Laura Bradbury was on a camping trip with her family at the Indian Cove Campground in the Joshua Tree National Park. The Bradbury family were regular visitors to the park.

Joshua tree served as a nice break for the family of five that lived nearby in a cramped two-bed condominium. Laura and her 8-year-old brother Travis went to the restroom. While Travis used the restroom, Laura waited outside for her brother to return.

When Travis came out, Laura had vanished. In a desperate attempt to solve the mystery, recreations of the disappearance were played out.

On this weeks episode, we will cover the timeline and details that led up to Laura’s disappearance, the bizarre events that unfolded during the search, and the shocking murders that opened the door to a potential conspiracy and cover-up.

Thousands of people have mysteriously vanished in America’s wilderness. Join us as we dive into the deep end of the unexplainable and try to piece together what happened. You are listening to locations unknown?

Joe: What’s up everybody? Thanks for tuning in we got a couple updates. We had some we actually sold out of our hats and merchandise on the website, which is pretty cool. Just got some more in. We also have some bumper stickers available. So please visit us on Facebook. Check out the store. Help us support the show. This episode is brought to you by Verdure, the health benefits of CBD have been known for quite some time. Verdure offers only the highest quality raw flour, edibles, oils, skin care line, and various other CBD products. You can find them on Facebook or on their website at Verdure Med dot com. That‘s the V E R D U R E M E D dot com.

Mike: Okay, everybody. Let’s gear up and get out to explore Locations Unknown. The date is October 18th, 1984. Three and a half year old Laura Bradbury was on a camping trip with her family at theIndian Cove Campgroundin Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree served as a nice break for the family of five that live nearby in a cramped two bedroom condominium. Laura and her eight-year-old brother Travis went to the restroom while Travis used the restroom Laura waited outside for brother to return. Travis came out Laura had vanished. On this week’s episode we will cover the timeline and details that led up to Laura’s disappearance, the bizarre events that unfolded during the search and the shocking murders that opened the door to potential conspiracy and cover-up.

Mike:Joshua Tree National Parkis located in southern California. If you’ve listened to episode 1 of the podcast, we already went through a pretty detailed description of the park so we’re not gonna do that again here. We are gonna go into a more detailed description of where Laura went missing, which is the Indian cove campground. So this is information right off the national parks website.

Joe: Yeah. I think if you wanna know about Joshua tree, they should probably listen to our other episode.

Mike: Yeah. We had a great episode where we actually talked to George Land the PIO from the park. He went into kind of a lot of the details of the geography.

Joe: Finish this episode up go right over that other episode. And then when you’re done with that one listen to all the other ones too.

Mike: So as we said, Laura went missing in Indian cove campground which lies amid some huge steep rock formations which Joshua Tree National Park is known for. Because of the proximity to many rock climbing routes, it is a popular camping location for climbers. Indian cove is one of four campgrounds in the park that can be reserved during the busy winter season. It is open on a first-come-first-served basis from June first to September 29th. And I always hated these kinds of campsites because you have a list of really cool places you want to hike, and unless you’re on their website, the first hour it goes on, you know, to the general public, you’re never gonna get it.

Joe: Yeah. Absolutely.

Mike: But so, yeah, it’s a first-come-first-served basis from June first through September twenty-ninth. Travelers who enjoy warm dry winters flock to Joshua tree from October through May when temperatures hover between 70 & 90 degrees during the day and drop to 40 & 60 degrees at night.

Joe: So this is like super popular for people from the north. Yeah, I can imagine. Like everybody’s trying to get there.

Mike: Joshua Tree is on my list. I’ve never been there. So hopefully in the next couple of year.

Joe: All the people that go missing there, maybe not.

Mike: Summer is the parks offseason due to the uncomfortably high desert heat and Indian cove is at an elevation of 3,200 feet.